This week I launched my third book for this year. 2020’s been harsh. I’ve lost family members, canceled trips and events and worried about illness, riots, and even civil war. And yet, it’s the best year of my life. I’m doing the work of my dreams and following my calling. This is my first full year working for myself since 2006, and this time I don’t have a staff of employees to worry about. I’m not promoting someone else’s creative vision like I was when I owned a franchise fitness center. I can be creative on a daily basis, and that gives me a lot of joy.

I was interviewed for a podcast on Saturday, and the interviewer and I talked about the false sense of empowerment that anger sometimes gives us. Instead of gaining power, anger makes us lose control. We can no longer trust ourselves to make good decisions. It’s so easy to become a victim of the long claws of anger. Sometimes it’s just circumstance that gets under our skin – a relationship, job or home situation falls apart. Sometimes people just know how to push our buttons – they might be hateful and ignorant or relish in chaos and violence. Before we know it, we can slide down the slippery slope with them, almost enjoying each insult that’s hurled like a dagger.

At least we’re not bored, right?  If we stop paying attention we can become immobilized by its grip. We might forget how it feels to be joyful.

Joy is the ultimate win. 

As the holidays approach, you’ll be hearing the word Joy more frequently. Peace and Joy. Joy and Peace. They will be tossed about like toys, with hardly any thought. They are powerful words if you give them a moment.

Are you peaceful? Are you joyful?

Is your family peaceful? Is your family joyful?

Is our nation peaceful? Is our nation joyful?

There’s a line in my self-help memoir, Thinking Outside the Chrysalis: A Black Woman’s Guide to Spreading Her Wings that reads, “Our ancestors sang in the cotton fields even under threat of the whip. Sometimes our joy is the only thing that can’t be stolen from us.” 

In a year marked by the obvious attempt to steal the presidential election, Joy wins. Love wins. Justice wins. It wins because it must.

When I started, I said 2020 was the best year of my life. In reality, every year that I’m alive and well is the best year of my life. Sometimes we just need to change our perspective.

I wish you Freedom, Alignment and Effortless Abundance!